zdl_cryptofandomcom-20200214-history
AZTEC Protocol
Basics * AZTEC Protocol is an open source zero-knowledge protocol built on top of Ethereum, making plug-and-play value transmission and asset governance privacy tools for developers and companies. * Their CTO has contributed to two open source projects with the aim of making cryptography cheaper on Ethereum: *# Optimisations to the evmone interpreter *# Adding batch pairing computation to the Parity BN library * Created an universal zk-snark construction, called PLONK, which was released (9-2019) in collaboration with Protocol Labs. Launch * Have announced (9-2019) their upcoming multi-party computation set-up ceremony and opened to applications for 200 participants to take part in a global relay. The ceremony will build a ‘Reference String’, an echo of ZCash’s Powers of Tau Ceremony, and will lead up to mainnet launch at the end of October. More details on how the ceremony works here. * Vitalik announced his participation in the Ignition ceremony, using his own implementation of the MPC. * AZTEC has completed Ignition, the biggest MPC ceremony in history by number of participants. From their blog (7-1-2020): "600 sign-ups, 202 participants ran the software — of which 176 were valid, 30 participants stayed incognito. Most participants came from London Confidential transactions on Ethereum are launching this month! 2 audits completed (Trail of Bits & ConsenSys Diligence), Ceremony finished, Codex computation finished this week → Deploy to Mainnet January 2020" * From Proof of Work #78 (29-10-2019): "we’re doing final deploy tests for our mainnet protocol, preparing for our launch later this year." * Has launched on Eth Mainnet on 1-2-2020. zkTokens * Does not have a token itself, but releases zk Tokens. The first of which at the launch (1-2-2020) was zkDai. "Over the coming six weeks we’ll release other zk Tokens onto the network, and in two months’ time we will remove restrictions so you can make completely private custom assets from scratch." * From this article by TrustNodes (10-2-2020): "You need to deposit dai through the ZkDai (zkassetdetailed) contract, through a zero knowledge proof.” Aztec turns dai into what can be described as a smart contract database asset. You send the dai to Aztec, and you get zkdai which gives you a claim to the dai. You can transfer this zkdai within the smart contract environment, but the blockchain won’t know until you convert it into dai. In the meantime you’re exchanging value in a very private manner. End users can’t quite play yet with Aztec because an app is not out, but devs can incorporate it through a tutorial of sorts." Tech * From their own launch blog (1-2-2020): "Aztec has deployed the two core components of its technology today: # Aztec Crypto Engine (ACE) — our smart contract validator on Ethereum mainnet, checking the correctness of every private transaction # Privacy SDK — abstracts away the complexities of Aztec’s cryptography, so developers can integrate privacy into their dapps with ease" Validation * From this article by TrustNodes (10-2-2020): "bitcoiners would argue that because you can’t validate yourself, you can’t be sure zkdai or zcash has not been printed out of thin air. “That’s not actually true — the point of a parity check is to prove that each transaction has a net zero effect on supply,” says Tom Walton-Pocock, after further adding: “I think I’d return with the question ‘under what conditions can the parity check over Aztec’s encrypted balances fail?’." Usage * JPMorgan's blockchain team trialed Aztec during a series of ZKP tests in February 2018. Team, investors, etc. * London based * Thomas Walton-Pocock; CEO * Zac Williamson; CTO * Arnaud Schenk Investors * ConsenSys led a $2.1 million funding round for Aztec in November 2019. * On their website (11-2-2020): Consensys, a_capital, Coinbase, Mov37, Samos Investments and ef. Funding * From this article by TrustNodes (10-2-2020): "So how are they going to make money? “On value capture we’re not passing detailed comment on that now (not least because the blockchain and zero-knowledge landscape is changing at a breathless pace at the moment). We will lay out our model publicly at a later date,” Walton-Pocock says."Category:Coins/Tokens